Toni Giovanni is a thief…although she prefers to call it the high-risk recovery business. Her current job feels suspiciously easy—until a mysterious artifact draws her into an ancient prophecy and binds her soul to a spirited dragon named Amethyst.

But Toni isn’t quite ready to be taken over by a dragon, even if Amethyst’s appetite for sexy archaeologist Dr. Ben Davis mirrors Toni’s own. And she’s got a big problem on her hands: turns out the prophecy predicts that dragons will end the world…and there are many more dragons out there.

Toni’s going to need all the help she can get.

When I first looked into the Carina Press catalog, the cover of Amethyst Bound drew me in. As silly as it sounds, purple is a rare color in books, and it continually snagged my attention. The blurb killed me though. As much as I liked the thief angle, I was kind of torn with regards to the dragons. I mean, I love dragons as much as the next girl, but dragon-shifters? Yeah, I just wasn’t sure I could wrap my brain around it for an entire novella.

Thank goodness for that gorgeous cover! It made me buy the book, and I’m glad I did.

Toni the thief was an engaging character, and I loved how she would watch Dr. Ben from the shadows while he worked and checked out his ass. Even when she would get a little emo about the relationship later on, she never got whiny, which made her moodiness a lot easier to take than I’ve seen in other novels. And Ben? LOVE the whole hot intellectual guy thing. Absolutely wanted to lick him myself.

The supernatural aspects of Amethyst Bound were a little hit and miss for me. I really wanted Toni’s “blending” ability to be explored more, but the emphasis in this story was clearly on the dragons. My only thought when other supernatural’s came into the mix was that I hoped they wouldn’t take over in later stories to the detriment of knowing more about Toni’s innate ability. As for the dragons themselves, that worked better for me than I expected. I loved the fact that Amethyst was her own character rather than just being a form Toni changed into. Also, instead of trying to explain how a skinny little thief could morph into an enormous fire-breathing dragon, the author just left the answer as “magic”. And I was okay with it since the lack of explanation didn’t detract from the story. There were certain little plot devices with regard to controlling the dragons that felt contrived and too convenient considering the story’s timeline, but not so much as to draw me out of the story.

The romance aspect felt a little rushed, but again, I could accept that given both the timeline and the fact that both Toni and Amethyst were hot for Ben. The fact that Amethyst claims her minions via sex fit well within the confines of the story, though I hope it won’t turn Toni into a slut in future installments. Oh, and in case you wondered, the sex was quite yummy.

Overall, I really enjoyed Amethyst Bound. It was a nice blend of paranormal and romance, with just enough action. The ending didn’t come as much of a surprise for me, but I didn’t need it to since the rest of the story worked so well. The next story in this series, whenever it’s due, is definitely on my buy list.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment

Name *

Email *

Website

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting.

About Us

Welcome to The Book Pushers review blog. If you're an author, publicist, or publisher wanting to request a review, please see our Review Policy before contacting us. Thanks!

If you want to learn a little bit about us, please head on over to the About page and our Reviewer Bios.

We accept digital galleys/ARCs for review. Our preferred method of receiving e-galleys is through Netgalley, where we are a listed Review Organization Accepting NetGalley Titles.

We also receive review copies through Edelweiss.

FTC Disclaimer

Per the FTC regulations, please note that we do receive books for review for free by publishers, authors, publicists, and third parties such as Netgalley and Edelweiss. We also review books we purchase ourselves. For every book we review, we’ll grade them on our honest opinions. So if we don’t like a book, we’ll say so. If it’s a rocking good book, we’ll say so. Simples.

We do use affiliate links such as Amazon Associates, Book Depository Affiliates, and the Barnes and Noble affiliated program. When you click on those links, we earn a very (and it’s very small) small percentage.